Underline Causes and Damage Assessment of Landslide Hazards in Bangladesh: A Case of 2017 event in Rangamati District

Abstract

Landslide hazard has become a burning issue for Bangladesh that is occurring about every year and causes physical, environmental, economic and social damage with a lot of death and causalities. In last 50 years Bangladesh has lost more than 600 people in landslide hazards. This death toll is increasing day by day as in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2017 it has lost 135, 43, 60, 115, 163 lives respectively. In June 2017 landslide hazards of Chittagong division have resulted in 160 deaths and 234 injured. Most of the damages occurred in Rangamati district in the last landslide event as it has detached for one month from other districts and lost 120 people that’s why Rangamati district has been selected as the study location. The present study attempts to identify the physical and human induced causes of landslide hazards and damage assessment. Through household survey including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) found that rainfall, weak soil structure, earthquake are the physical causes and hill cutting, deforestation, wrong cultivation systems, leakage in water pipe, unplanned urbanization are the major causes of landslide. Landslide in Bangladesh also occurs in specific time from June to August month of the year.

Full text

Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
International Association of Lowland Technology (IALT): ISSN 1344-9656
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
Research Paper
Underline Causes and Damage Assessment of Landslide
Hazards in Bangladesh: A Case of 2017 event in Rangamati
District
M. N. Islam 1 and M. M. Islam 2
A R T I C L E I N F O R M A T I O N A B S T R A C T
Article history:
Received: 21 October, 2019
Received in revised form:
18 December, 2019
Accepted: January 14, 2020
Publish on: 6 March, 2020
Keywords:
Landslide
Hazards
Rangamati
Bangladesh
Landslide hazard has become a burning issue for Bangladesh
that is occurring about every year and causes physical,
environmental, economic and social damage with a lot of death
and causalities. In last 50 years Bangladesh has lost more than
600 people in landslide hazards. This death toll is increasing
day by day as in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2017 it has lost 135,
43, 60, 115, 163 lives respectively. In June 2017 landslide
hazards of Chittagong division have resulted in 160 deaths and
234 injured. Most of the damages occurred in Rangamati district
in the last landslide event as it has detached for one month from
other districts and lost 120 people that’s why Rangamati district
has been selected as the study location. The present study
attempts to identify the physical and human induced causes of
landslide hazards and damage assessment. Through household
survey including Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and
Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) found that rainfall, weak
soil structure, earthquake are the physical causes and hill
cutting, deforestation, wrong cultivation systems, leakage in
water pipe, unplanned urbanization are the major causes of
landslide. Landslide in Bangladesh also occurs in specific time
from June to August month of the year.
1.
Introduction
Bangladesh is a multi-hazard prone country and landslide
is not new phenomenon in Bangladesh. However, it has
never been hazardous like the incident of Chittagong on
11 June 2007 (Mahmood and Khan, 2010). Presently
landslide is occurring frequently in the hilly regions of the
country (Chisty, 2014). In last decade 2007-2017 more
than 451 people died. A recent landslide in June 12,
2017 has taken about 175 people lives where in 2012
about 90, in 2010 about 53 and in 2007 about 127 people
has died (NDRCC, 2017). Table 1 has presented the
summary of landslide hazards in Bangladesh from the
last 50 years. Including huge death toll many houses are
damaged and domestic animals died in those landslides.
Understanding the landslide mechanism and
underline causes are very important to reduce the
damages. To understand landslide disaster properly
some steps required more importance like road
development process, building structure, construction
materials, slope and load management etc. At first it will
be the causes of landslide. Causes of landslide are
different from place to place, environment to environment
and community to community. Then the damage
assessments of the particular landslide event will provide
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environment, Pabna University of Science and Technology, BANGLADESH.
Email: najmul.sohel@gmail.com
2 Graduate Student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Pabna University of Science and Technology, BANGLADESH.
Email: mazharemu@gmail.com
Note: Discussion on this paper is open until September 2020

M. N. Islam et al. / Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
clear picture which will be given a clear understanding
about landslide. And the most important part is to know
how to live in the hilly area safely. The objectives of the
study are to identify the underline causes, damage
assessment and to provide some policy guidelines.
Table 1: Review of previous Landslide in Bangladesh
district has been selected purposively. The study areas
have been selected purposively to consider loss and
damage from ward no 06 of Rangamati municipality of
Rangamati Sadar Upazila of Rangamati district. These
study locations are mostly affected and vulnerable for
landslide disaster. One location is dominated by
indigenous people (Chakma tribal community) named
Year Place No. of
Death
No. of
Injured Data sources Jubo Unnayan Para (JUP) which is located between 22°
2017 Khagrachari,
Rangamati,
Bandarban ,
Mowlovibazar,
Coxbazar and
Chittagong
2015 Chittagong,
163 234 DDM report
2 Unknown Prothom Alo
39' 02.4'' N and 92° 09' 26.48'' E. another one is Bengali
settler dominated area named West Muslim Para (WMP)
located in between: 22° 39' 21.7'' N and 92° 09' 12.4'' E.
Distances between two locations are 874 meter only by
road and 740 meter straight line (Fig. 1).
Majhirghona
2013 Ballaghat area,
Sylhet
2012 Bandarban,
Coxbazar,
Chittagong
3 2 Daily star
94 Unknown Kaler
kantho
2.2 Data collection
A combination process of qualitative and
quantitative data collection has been followed to
conduct this study.
This includes the use of
following tools: Interview
Khulsi
2011
Batali Hill of
Chittagong,
Ramjadi,
Bandarban
19
ADPC
2010
Coxbazar
60
100
BBC
2009
Lama,
22
09
BBC
Bandarban ,
Near Habiganj
Town, Syltet
2008
Lalkhan
43
Unknown
Sarwar, 2008
Bazaar,Cox’s
Bazaar, Teknaf
And Ukhia
Upzilas
2007
Motijharna,
135
213
Banglapedia
Power Colony,
Kushumbagh,
Taragate,
Devpahar,
Chittagong,
Lebubagan Of
Chittagong
2003
Coxbazar
6
2
Bangla-pedia
2000
Chittagong
13
20
SAARC
University
Campus
1999
Lama Thana,
7
Unknown
Bangla-pedia
Bandarban
1997
Chittagong
13
20
Banglapedia
University
Campus
1990
Rangamati
Unknown
Unknown
Banglapedia
1970
Rangamati
Unknown
Unknown
Banglapedia
Source: Prepared by the authors based on various sources.
2.
Methodology
2.1 Selection of the study sites
As the Rangamati district is severely damaged
by landslide hazards among others district in 2017, so
this
schedule for the households of two study villages,
Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) with active
participation of local community in the affected area and
Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) from different key
personals in relevant sectors. Sample size was 100 for
the Household survey where 60 Households from the
West Muslim Para (Bengali settler community) and 40
Households form the Jubo Unnoyon Para (Chakma tribal
community) of Rangamati Sadar upazila of Rangamati
district. The survey was conducted to get the actual
information from the local level.
Secondary sources of data and information have
been collected from various governmental organizations
like DC office, Municipality office, LGED office, land office,
weather station, various non-governmental offices. Data
collected from relevant articles, books, local and national
newspapers, and various types of maps and Shape files
collected from Municipality office for GIS analysis.
3.
Results and discussions
3.1 Causes of landslide
Landslides occur as a result of changes on a slope,
sudden or gradual mass movement, either in its
composition, structure or in its hydrology, vegetation. The
change can be due to geology, climate, weathering, land
use and earthquakes (Sahni et al., 2011).
To measures the respondents’ perception they were
asked to give rating to the causes in the range of 0-5
scale. They rated the causes according to the magnitude
of the cause to occurring landslide. The most responsible
cause is rated in higher number to the lower responsible
cause. After collecting their rating to the causes they
were summarized and ranked following their value.
indigenous people (Chakma tribal community) named
247

S. Manandhar et al. / Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
Fig. 2. Causes of Landslide
Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017
This process was applied to the both study areas so
that it can be compared between their views.
Fig. 2 shows the different view of both Jubo
Unnayan Para and West Muslim Para about the
causes of landslide. Their perceptions are quite different
in most
of the causes. This table make It clear that
people form Chakma tribal community are giving
priority to the long term causes where people from
the West Muslim Para are giving priority to the short
term causes. People form West Muslim Para think
that heavy rainfall, flash flood and thunderstorms are
the major causes of the landslide hazard. But people
form the Jubo Unnayan Para thinks that hill cuttings,
deforestation, building various structures are the main
causes for the landslide. They also think that the
seepage water form water pipe and the unplanned
development are also responsible for present
landslide.
248
Fig. 1. Study Area Map
Source: Prepared by the Authors based on field survey

M. N. Islam et al. / Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
3.1.1 Hill cutting
Presently indiscriminate hill cutting is one of the
major causes of landslide in Chittagong hill track areas.
Hills of
Chittagong are being cut for construction,
developing residential/housing area, clay and sand
mining and developing road network (Mahmood and
Khan, 2010).
People of the West Muslim Para are less conscious
than Jubo Unnayan Para concerning hill cutting and its
consequences. Rate of hill cutting is higher in the West
Muslim Para than Jubo Unnayan Para because
population density of West Muslim Para is higher than
Jubo Unnayan Para that’s why they need more houses
and built more houses by cutting the hill. On the other
side the cutting hill in higher angle is more dangerous.
About 6.7 percent people form the west Muslim Para
respondent think that hill cutting is not responsible for the
landslide rest of the people think it is not a major cause
for landslide. On the other hand 77 percent people form
the Jubo Unnayan Para think that hill cutting is one of the
major causes of landslide. So the peoples’ perception is
quite different between the Bangali Settler and Tribal
community.
3.1.2 Deforestation
Deforestation is also another major cause of
landslide in Rangamati district. Vegetation protects the
soil and makes slope stable thus reduce the risk of
landslides.
Large trees provide strong structures in the
earth that
anchor the soil and protect it from any
erosion (Sultana,
2013). In the both study areas
deforestation has taken place for building their house.
Rate of deforestation is higher in the West Muslim
Para. Around 50 percent
respondent of Jubo Unnayan
Para stated that
deforestation as the main causes of
landslide in 2017 though only 8.3 percent people
believe that deforestation is not a cause for this landslide.
Rest of the people states deforestation as the cause of
landside.
3.1.3 Seepage of water
Seepage of water is a major cause of Jubo
Unnayan Para as observed in field survey 2017 and
supported by
25 percent of Chakma respondent. In Jubo Unnayan
Para it was found that a water pipe went through the road
which was leaded and leached water from the whole of
the pipe. This water makes the soil saturated and loses
its compactness and causes the landslide. According to
the KII findings of the civil engineer observation in
Rangamati district, found many landslide spots were
found messed with the water pipe or sewerage pipe
(Photo 1).
Photo 1. Water pipe in spot of Landslide
Source: Field survey in 2017
3.1.4 Unplanned development
Unplanned development of the Rangamati district
can be identified as the main man made cause of
landslide hazards. As per observation and PRA findings
revealed that the government organizations are not
following landslide resilient development activities in.
Hill cutting,
deforestation is the result of unplanned
development in Rangamati district. There is no strict hill
management
policy within the CMA (Ahmed et al.,
2014). This bad practice has encouraged outsiders to
build their settlements and structures everywhere
including the vulnerable area (Photo 2). Around 60
percent
respondents from Chakma community of Jubo
Unnayan para mentioned the unplanned development
as the cause of landslide when other people do not
go along with this.
Photo 2. Unplanned Settlement at the study site
Source: Field survey, 2017.
249

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Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
3.1.5 Heavy rainfall
Rainfall is the most common cause of landslide
either directly or indirectly (Derbyshire, 1976). Landslide
has a direct relation with heavy rainfall. When it rains,
water dissolves the minerals of the soil of the hills that
loosens its compaction. Soils of the hills also turn heavy
absorbing rainwater. If rain intensity is too high, minerals
of soil dissolve very quickly and the soil turns into mud
and becomes very heavy. The steep slope of the hill
cannot bear the mass weight of the wet soil or mud that
results the landslide (Chisty, 2014).
Most of the respondent of the two study village
mentioned that heavy rainfall is one of the main causes
of landslide 2017 event in Bangladesh. According to the
weather office of Rangamati district recorded the highest
rainfall ever. From 12 June 6.00 am to 13 June 6.00 AM
it was 343 mm, and 13 June 6.00AM to 14 June 6.00 am
it recorded 180 mm rainfall (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Rainfall of Rangamati district in 2017
Source: Rangamati Weather Station.
3.1.6 Heavy Thunderstorm
Thunderstorm refers to the friction between rain
bearing clouds which produce lights and sound. People
of both village community agreed to the same point
that heavy thunderstorm was one of the major causes of
landslide in 2017. Heavy thunderstorm occurred with
heavy rainfall.
Sound of the thunderstorm created
huge sound which has echoed in the mountains, the
vibration of mountain which has loosen the compaction
of soils and the heavy rainfall triggered the landslide
faster. Weather office of
Rangamati district also
confirmed that heavy
thunderstorm occurred in 12 June when the landslide
took places.
3.1.7 Flash flood
Flash flood is one of the major causes of hill cutting.
Water form heavy rain fall creates the flash flood. It is a
high speed flow of water coming down from the top of the
hill and washes away to the ground. Rain water melts
away the soil of hill and creates a flow of mud. People of
the both Jubo Unnayan and the West Muslim Para stated
this flash flood causes the most damages.
When the flash flood occurred ultimately as a result of
heavy rainfall it started to wash away trees, houses,
various structures, and made the flash flood more
dangerous. The eye witness expressed that the depth of
the water was more than 3 feet and the speed was so
high so that many people could not escape their
catastrophe (Photo 3).
Photo 3. Flash flood at the West Muslim Para
Source: Rangamati Municipality
3.2 Damage Assessment
Landslide is a very common hazard in this study area. It
occurs every year and causes a lot of damages with loss
of life. In both study area people usually experience
landslide every year. Average rate of facing landslide in
the Vedvedi West Muslim Para (WMP) is 2.80 including
the maximum value of facing landslide is 6 and lowest is
1. In the Jubo Unnayan Para (JUP) average rate of
facing landslide is 3.34 including the maximum value of
facing landslide are 15 and minimum is 0.
Fig. 4 shows that Chakma people faced more
landslide in their life time than Bengali people because
they live in there for a very long time than a Bengali
community. It also indicates that Bengali community is
less experienced than Chakma community that’s why
they face more damage in landslide.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
250

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Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
Types of Assets
Weighted value
(w)
Total quantity
(T)
Complete damaged,
C(cd*1)
Highly damaged, H (hd*0.75)
Medium damaged, M (md*0.50)
Low damaged (ld*0.25)
Total damage,
D = { w(C+H+M+L)} / T
Fig. 4. Times of experience landslide hazards
Source: Field survey in 2017.
For assessment damage in this study “Approach
of Schuster and Fleming (1986)” (Petrucci & Gulla, 2009)
has used:
Here, w = weighted value of physical elements.
C= complete damage = cd*1,
H= highly damage = hd*.75,
M= medium damage = md*.50,
L = low damage = ld*.25.
T= Total quantity of physical elements.
Table 2. Asset Damage of WMP (Bengali Community)
Types of
Assets
Complete
damaged
(cd)
Highly
damaged
(hd)
Medium
damaged
(md)
Low
damaged
(ld)
House
90
13
13
05
Livestock (cow,
buffalo)(number)
8
2
0
10
Livestock (goat,
sheep) (number)
111
4
0
0
Poultry
(number)
Land (decimal)
466
140
0
127
0
0
50
Shed (number)
9
5
2
1
Crop (decimal)
37
10
Tree (number)
340
20
9
31
Toilet (number)
27
2
3
3
Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017.
Table 3: Damage Assessment Index of West Muslim Para
To assess the damages, all kind of physical
elements which have damaged in the landslide (Table 2
& Table 4) are given weight form the range 0-1 which is
expressed by w. Such as House= 1, livestock= 0.3,
poultry= 0.1, land =0.75 etc. All weights are
comparatively assumed on the basis of FGD and PRA
and from the view of participants and experts. Then on
the basis of damage quality it is divided into four parts
and given weighted such as for completely damage=1,
High damage=0.75, Medium damage= 0.50, Low
damage=0.25. Damage assessment in particular sector
is calculated, Such as total number of completely
damaged houses are 90 which is multiplied by 1, total
number of highly damaged houses are 13 which is
multiplied by 0.75, total number of medium damaged
houses are 13 which is multiplied by 0.50. and for low
damaged number of houses 05 is multiplied by 0.25. then
House 1
170
90 9.7
5
6.5
1.25
0.6323
after addition of all damages for particular sector it is
multiplied by its weighted value w, such as for house
sector, by adding completely, highly, medium and low
damaged it is multiplied by its weighted value 1 then it is
divided by its total number and it is the total damage of a
sector. Finally total damage index will be the summation
of sector’s damages which is presented in Table 3 and
Table 5.
(number)
Total damage index 1.724
Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017.
By using the damage assessment index, Table 3
shows the total damage index of of Vedvedi West Muslim
Para is 1.724.
Livestock
1
40
8
1.5
0
2.5
0.3
(cow,
buffalo)(n
umber)
Livestock
0.3
250
111
3
0
0
0.1368
(goat,
sheep)
(number)
Poultry
0.1
600
466
0
0
0
0.0776
(number)
Land
0.75
900
140
95.
0
12.5
0.2064
(decimal)
25
Shed
0.5
40
9
3.7
1
0.25
0.175
(number)
5
Crop
0.2
100
37
0
0
2.5
0.079
(decimal)
Tree
0.4
1500
340
15
4.5
7.75
0.0979
(number)
Toilet
0.1
160
27
1.5
1.5
0.75
0.0192
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S. Manandhar et al. / Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
Table 4: Asset Damage of JUP (Chakma Tribal Village) 3.2.1 Casualties
Types of
Assets
Complete
damaged
Highly
damaged
Medium
damaged
Low
damaged
Damage of people is the most dangerous and
irreversible damage. Landslide in Rangamati is the
most disastrous
(cd)
(hd)
(md)
(ld)
House
69
14
5
6
Livestock (cow,
buffalo)(number)
2
0
0
0
Livestock (goat,
sheep) (number)
12
0
0
0
Poultry
(number)
Land (decimal)
73
93
0
40
0
25
0
4
Shed (number)
10
5
2
Crop (decimal)
60
15
20
10
Tree (number)
17
10
Toilet (number)
25
2
1
4
Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017.
because it has lost highest number of people in all record.
In the study area it has lost about 20 persons. A lot of
person was seriously injured and 5 families were totally
vanished. Some people became mentally unstable.
Above table shows that, 21.67 percent people died from
Bengali community where only 17.5 percent are from
Chakma community. On the other side seriously injured
in Bengali community is less than Chakma because
Chakma people faced the hazard and got seriously
injured as 27.5 % people got badly hurt but did not lose
their life. About 41.67 % was badly hurt from Bengali
community (Table 6).
Table 6: Damages of human lives in the study villages
Types of
damage
West Muslim Para
(Bengali Settler Community)
Jubo Unnoyon Para
(Chakma Tribal Community)
Table 5: Damage Assessment Index of Jubo Unnoyon Para
Death
tolls
Serious
physical
damage
Light
physical
damage
Temporar
y damage
Total
Resp.
60
No. of
Injured
people
Injured
people
(%)
Total
Resp.
No. of
Injured
people
Injured
people
(%)
House 1 120 69 10
.5
2.5 1.5 0.6958 Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017
Livestock
(cow,
buffalo)(n
Livestock
(goat,
sheep)
(number)
Poultry
1 15 2
0
0
0 0.1333
0.3
150
12
0
0
0 0.024
0.1
250
73
0
0
0 0.0292
Around 15 percent from Bengali community shocked
temporarily seen the hazard where there is no person in
Chakma people who got temporarily shocked because
they have enough strength to face the hazard. There are
some reasons behind that. Density of the population of
(number)
Land 0.75 1200 93 30 12.5 1 0.0853 Chakma is less than the Bengali which reduces the
(decimal)
Shed
(number)
Crop
(decimal)
Tree
(number)
Toilet
(number)
0.5 20 10 3.
75
0.2 100 60 11
5
0.4 1000 17 7.
5
0.1 130 25 1.
5
1 0 0.3687
10 2.5 0.1675
0 0 0.0098
0.5 1 0.0215
38
vulnerability to death to the hazards. Besides this one
Chakma people are more aware and experienced than
Bengali people and they know how to face this kind of
hazard.
3.2.2 Physical damages
Both villages have faced a lot of physical damages for
Total damage index 1.5352
Source: Field survey by the authors in 2017.
Damage index of Jubo Unnayan Para is 1.5352
(Table 5) and West Muslim Para is 1.724 Table 3).
This indicates that in same criteria damage of West
Muslim Para is more than Jubo Unnayan Para.
the landslide. Table 7 shows the damages in two villages
and it is clear that the Bengali Para has faced the damage
most than Chakma Para in every sectors. Table 3 has
presented the physical damages of two study villages. The
West Muslim Para has faced more physical damage
compare to the Jubo Unnayon Para.
Types of Assets
Weighted value
(w)
Total quantity
(T)
Complete damaged,
C(cd*1)
Highly damaged, H (hd*0.75)
Medium damaged, M (md*0.50)
Low damaged (ld*0.25)
Total damage,
D = { w(C+H+M+L)} / T
13 21.67
25 41.67
7
17.5
11
27.5
20
33.34 40
1
2.5
9
15
0
0
252

M. N. Islam et al. / Lowland Technology International 2020; 21 (4): 246-254
Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
Table 7: Physical damages of both study villages 4.2 Warning system over the mobile phone
Types of damages WMP
(Bangali
Settler)
JUP
(Tribal
Chakma)
Warning system should be delivered through mike and
mobile telephone because during cyclone and landslide
Housing structure 90 69 or raining warning through mike is not being heard for
Livestock (cow/buffalo) in
number
Livestock (goat/sheep) in
number
8 2
111 12
extreme sound pollution. If the warning system provided
through the mobile then it will be easier to notify. The
warning through mobile should be included the safe
Poultry (hen) in number 466 73
Land (decimal) 140 93
Kitchen Shed (number) 9 10
Crop with land (decimal) 37 60
Tree (number) 340 17
Toilet (number) 27 25
Source: Field survey in 2017.
4. Recommendations and Guidelines
4.1 Re-thinking about construction materials
Above table shows that, more than 90 percent
people form Jubo Unnayan Para prefer to use light
materials like bamboo, tin, timber for their household
structures and not
prefer to use heavy building materials
like brick, concrete
etc. because they think that light
materials is less responsible for landslide.
Form the West Muslim Para, Bengali people think
that heavy material will save them during landslide. So
that more than 90 percent people form Bengali
community prefer to build their structure with heavy
materials. They also think that the maintenance cost for
heavy materials building is less than light materials
buildings (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5. Peoples’ Perceptions for using house construction
materials
Source: Field survey in 2017.
place where they should go, magnitude of hazard, and an
emergency number where they should call or take any
information about the hazard or something else.
4.3 Light building materials use
People of the Jubo Unnayan Para think that, light
materials don’t affect the mountain body. That will
prevent the landslide. Light materials should be used to
build all kind of household structures. Use of light
materials reduce the possibility of occurring landslide and
will reduce the vulnerability. During the landslide it will be
less dangerous than heavy materials.
4.4 House should be away from mountain slope
House should be built far from mountain area.
When a house will remain far from the mountain area
then it will be safe even during landslide. Distances
should be proportional to the height of mountain.
Without vegetation steep slope of mountain is
vulnerable for making household structure (Photo 4).
Photo 4. A vulnerable house at the steep slope
Source: Field survey in 2017.
4.5 Afforestation on the mountain slope
Afforestation on the mountain slope is very
important to preserve the soil mass in a mountain slope.
As per field survey and observation it was found that
there was not
significant vegetation which can protect
land slide. It is highly needed to aware local people
and involves them with afforestation program.
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Special Issue on: Engineering Geology and Geotechniques for Developing Countries
4.6 Peoples’ perception regarding land leveling
Most of the People from Chakma ethnicity think that
there is no need to leveling of mountain to ensure safety.
Some people are agreed with that the mountain should
be leveled to make the house and all kind of structure.
They think house should be built according to mountain
level.
Only 24 percent people form Jubo Unnayan Para
agreed to level the mountain to create safe and livable
place to live where rest 76 percent people are not
willing to leveling the mountain because they don’t
want to interrupt the natural condition of mountain (Fig.
6).
Fig. 6. Peoples’ Perceptions regarding land leveling
issue
Source: Field survery in 2017
5. Conclusions
Landslide is a natural phenomenon which will be
occurred in hilly area in normal process. But it can be
controlled sometime by proper planning, implementing
proper rules and regulations. The most important issues
in this landslide are the awareness in every level of
people from the policy maker to the local people. As its
trend it can be predict that upcoming days will not be
better if the present condition is going on. Determining
the livelihood pattern of this hilly area with special rules
and regulation for hilly area are the present time demand.
The study revealed that the ethnic tribal people are living
for long time in this mountain environment. Their loss and
damage is lower compare to the Bengali Settler people.
Awareness and training program should introduce for the
Bengali settler community focusing building housing
structure with light local material, maintain mountain
slope and drainage system and planting trees and bush
on the mountain slope. The government organizations
should practice the mountain environment friendly
construction and development activities.
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